Farm Internship Opportunity in Oregon

General Farm Description: Flying Coyote Farm is a woman owned and operated farm nestled in the foothills of Mt. Hood in Sandy, Oregon. We use organic and biodynamic growing practices on our 3-acre farm to raise high quality produce, meat and dairy. We grow produce in a onacre market garden for our CSA members farmer and local restaurants and grocer. We also have an extensive livestock program we raise dairy goats and sell raw milk and make cheese for home consumption. We raise pigs, goats and chickens for meat, and laying hens and ducks for eggs. Each year we process between 100-200 broiler chickens for our house and for sale, and we generally raise and process 2-3 pigs and 1-2 goats. We also grow berries and fruit mainly for onfarm use.

Lili Tova is the owner and manager of Flying Coyote Farm. She has been working as a gardener and farmer for ten years, in Florida, California and Oregon. She is a first and second year graduate of the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at UC Santa Cruz. During her second year in the program, she worked as the Assistant Manager of the five-acre farm site, helping to manage and coordinate a 150 member CSA, farm stand, and restaurant sales. She has a passion for teaching, and worked as a mentor to the first year apprentices in Santa Cruz and as the Garden Manager at Aprovecho Research Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Interns at Flying Coyote farm will be expected to work 30-50 hours a week on all aspects of the farm.his generally means a 5-6 day workweek with 1-2 days off per weeke will also strive to give each intern 1-2 weeks off during the season. Interns will share in all animal chores including, milking, feeding and watering animals, collecting eggs and animal processing and packaging. Daily garden work will include seeding starts in the greenhouse, watering, weeding, greenhouse work and harvesting and processing produce for sale.

Generally our weeks are broken into harvest days, garden work days and market and delivery days. Spring will focus on seeding and transplanting, summer will see an increase in harvesting and processing, and fall will bring canning, wood splitting, animal processing and putting the garden to rest.

There will be opportunities to work farmer markets, coordinate the CSA program and participate in restaurant and grocery deliveries. Our farm is known for our attention to quality, and the freshness and beauty of our products. Interns will learn about harvest and postharvest handling techniques to ensure that produce is harvested, processed and stored to maintain the freshest and highest quality product.

Interns will also participate in building and infrastructure projects around the farm, which can range in scale from maintaining animal shelters to fencing and irrigation work. Interns will also be encouraged to participate in homesteading projects such as canning, herbal medicine making, sauerkraut making and cheese making. We try to process enough canned food to last our family through the winter and cheese making is a regular weekly farm chore.

Start Date: 4/1/15

End Date: 11/1/15

Number of Positions Available: 2-3

App Deadline: 3/1/15

Minimum length of stay: 6 months

Internship Details:

Housing: Housing will mainly be tent camping with an outdoor shower, composting toilet and outdoor kitchen facilities provided (we also encourage you to use our house as your home during this time!) We are looking for more permanent intern housing in the form of small trailers but have not found any at this time.

Meals: The farm will provide all meals for interns. Interns will also help with daily meal preparation and house chores. We eat a fair amount of meat, dairy and wheat and will try our best to cater to other diets, but we also expect people with special dietary requirements to provide some of their own alternative foods. No vegans please! as we eat a diet that is heavy in dairy and meat and don’t feel vegans would be comfortable sharing meals on our farm.

Skills Desired: We are looking for people who have a passion for farming and a desire to be involved in an agrarian lifestyle. Farming is hard work but also incredibly rewarding so a positive attitude and good work ethic are a must. We are always looking for people with carpentry skills or general handy man/woman skills although enthusiasm to learn is really the only requirement.

Educational Opportunities: Educational opportunities will be mainly informal and will happen throughout the day as interns become integrated into the farm. The hows and whys of our farming practices will be clearly explained and interns are fully encouraged to ask questions and take on personal projects that will be supported by the farm manager. Our hope is that by the end of the season interns will leave feeling more confident in their ability to run a small diversified market garden and to manage various aspects of animal husbandry.

Application: Please send a cover letter and resume outlining your experience. Tell us why you think you’d be a good fit for our farm, what skills or interests you bring and what prior farming/gardening experience you’ve had, please also include anything else you think might be of interest and a photo if you have one handy!

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Beginning Farmers offers information on how to start a farm, planning a new farm, funding resources and finding land to start your farm on. We cover all areas of farming from raising chickens and goats to mushroom production, and urban farms to business farming. Internships and employment opportunities posted regularly.